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Austin leads the Jack Sears Trophy Standings

After its introduction in 2013, the Jack Sears Trophy will now be awarded to the independent driver who makes up the most places over the course of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

After an exciting opening weekend at Brands Hatch that saw incredibly close, hard but fair racing around the short 1.2 mile Indy configuration, it is Rob Austin leading the way in his Exocet Racing Audi A4. Austin scored a podium at the same event in 2013 before an enormous accident almost put paid to his entire season, but this year kept ‘Sherman’ out of the barriers and racked up a big tally of overtakes. He made up an impressive 23 places over the three races on Sunday, utilising his rear-wheel-drive traction off the line to blast past a number of drivers – moving from 11th to fifth in race one.

Mechanical issues for the Audi in race two saw him pull off the grid and out of contention. This left the Evesham-based racer at the back of the grid for race three, starting 28th out of the thirty runners. With soft tyres on the car, Austin powered his way through the field, and was just outside the top ten when the chequered flag came out.

Second in the Jack Sears Trophy running is returning champion Alain Menu, who had a huge moment going down Paddock Hill in race one and found himself a couple of laps down after a trip to the pits. This meant that the Swiss driver had to carve his way through the field in the final two races, and in doing so he made up 22 places putting him just one behind Austin in the standings.

James Cole lies third having made up 15 places on his return to the BTCC. The United Autosports driver found himself battling hard in the mid-field pack all weekend, and after contact with Martin Depper in race one that put him out of the race, he like the other two front runners in the JST was out of position and having to make up places.

See the full JST standings below:

Driver

Places Gained at Brands Hatch Indy

Total Places Gained

Rob Austin

23

23

Alain Menu

22

22

James Cole

15

15

Dave Newsham

10

10

Fabrizio Giovanardi

9

9

Jack Clarke

9

9

Colin Turkington

8

8

Mat Jackson

8

8

Nick Foster

8

8

Robb Holland

8

8

Adam Morgan

7

7

Ollie Jackson

7

7

Simon Belcher

6

6

Hunter Abbott

5

5

Rob Collard

4

4

Aiden Moffat

3

3

Glynn Geddie

3

3

Chris Stockton

3

3

Lea Wood

2

2

Tom Ingram

1

1

Andrew Jordan

0

0

Dan Welch

0

0

Martin Depper

0*

0

Jack Goff

0*

0

Warren Scott

0*

0

Aron Smith

0*

0

Marc Hynes

0*

0

* = penalty

For clarification: The 2014 Jack Sears Trophy will be awarded to the Independent driver who achieves the greatest improvement from their respective grid positions over the entire season. Drivers who receive a judicial penalty that affects their grid position during the course of that or a subsequent Championship Meeting will not score in the Jack Sears Trophy for the Championship Meeting where the penalty is taken.